Rip Tide
by SakuraHikarinoTsubasa
Summary: One-shot: Kairi contemplates the year she lived without remembering Sora and how it makes her feel to see him leave once again. Takes place before Dream Drop Distance. Includes, implied Sorkai and a little less bright and cheerful Kairi.


**A/N: **I haven't posted my fanfiction in a while, and so I thought it's now or never! This was a one-shot I wrote just as a response to what Kairi could have thought about as Sora set off for his Dream Drop Distance journey. It was an experiment to see how I could write Kairi and for me to get a sense of how I could write a Kingdom Hearts fanfiction. It's fairly angsty and is a contrast to the bright and optimistic Kairi we know, but I hope you enjoy it! - Hikari

Rip Tide

"Kairi… I… It's just, they really need me." Sora said. " I am who I am, because of them."

Those words echoed within Kairi's heart, bouncing off the empty void still within her, left by that boy who once disappeared from her memories for a year. For that one short year there was a lingering feeling of loss she couldn't place, and now…it rushed over her like a pounding cold wave. She could never pull herself past it, she was in too deep, swallowed by a rip-tide caused by his now long-trodden journey without her.

_Didn't you say that you would fight now? Hadn't you made a vow to fight alongside him? That wherever he went, you would always be with him, but this time- right by his side?_

That voice, she wondered if it was Namine's, but she couldn't be sure. Her nobody had been silent since that day in the World That Never Was. Would it have been a comfort to talk to her? She didn't know, after all…Namine had feelings for Sora too. Kairi knew better than anyone else that the Memory Witch had a heart. That same heart that Diz denied her of having. Kairi even knew when Namine formed that heart within her chest, her memories weren't clear to Kairi, but it felt as if her intuition was telling her it was the day Sora went to sleep for a year.

Kairi, with tightly clasped hands gathered up the nerves to ask Riku about it, the year that only he remembered Sora. There was a bubbling tinge of jealousy in her chest as he spoke about retaining his memories of Sora through sheer willpower, and of course Namine's intervention. It made her feel…frustrated at herself for letting her memories fade of his name and face. Kairi had never truly forgotten Sora, but she did think of him as a hazy, albeit vague memory within her mind for a moment.

At first, she had thought she was going crazy, asking the islanders about a boy that they claimed had never existed. But then, one day, she fainted on the beach, and dreamed about giving a Thalassa charm to the boy. It was then she knew that something had blocked the memories deep within her heart. She couldn't access them, but they were there, warm, comforting, and so distant. She cried harder than she ever had before that day, screaming in unison with another girl's voice in the distance.

A part of her wondered if that voice came from the island where they used to play, or maybe it was just her own heart echoing back to her the pain she felt from a loss. What that loss was, she didn't know. Either way, Kairi knew now that something had happened that day. If it was something that happened with Roxas, a nobody who held within him Sora's memories, or not…she didn't know. But a part of her told her it did. Deep inside. No…maybe it was someone other than Roxas. A vague figure in the back of her mind she couldn't place. Was it Namine's memory?

_I'm sorry. _

A voice echoed within her chest. Namine? She wondered. But she was left with silence, and a dread that in fact maybe it was her own desire to forget all the painful memories that created Namine's powers in the first place. After all, she was a special nobody, one formed from someone of pure light whose body wasn't made into a husk, well a dusk as it were.

But was Kairi herself pure light? At times she wondered if that was true, her status as a princess of heart was filled with questions. What made someone filled with pure light? What made someone filled with pure darkness?

She didn't know. But there was not doubt that the feelings of regret and guilt inside her were not worth dwelling on. No, now she finally had the chance to make it up to him. Kairi smiled and nodded. Sora smiled back at her, then a nod. Yes, it was easy to understand him. He was so warm, strong, and determined to save those who were hurting. She had no doubt that he would save everyone in the worlds if he could.

She grabbed the charm that she swore an oath on, so long ago now, out from her bag. She didn't even glance it. No, that would be too painful. As she placed it in his hand, she wore a smile, a true and genuine smile.

"See you soon." Kairi said. And this time, she knew, it wouldn't be long until they were together again.


End file.
